In the building and construction industry, job estimation is a time-consuming and costly process. In order to appropriately estimate the cost of any job an individual must assemble both the correct product to satisfy the engineering criteria of a given project and then assemble prices from a variety of data sources. Complex estimates compound the work and cost of this process. In a complex project, estimates are often assembled from a combination of pricing sources. These estimates require both a structured and intimate understanding of the product, its technical specifications, and costs.
An automated configuration system (and method) is provided for facilitating the configuration of desired products, services, or other assemblages that require users to gather and assimilate disparate knowledge of makes, models, types, features, options, limitations, codes, and prices of the desired product/service (or group of the same) to be configured. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, configuration is facilitated through interaction of a user with a frame engine that performs frame-based inferences to discern stored knowledge of a product (or the like), as supplemented by a rules-based inference system.